The first follower

Sometimes in life, you sit down with yourself and introspect on all that has happened in the past. And you get to the realization that a lot of what has been done in the past was not only because of your own efforts. There were always people present who believed in you and there in lies the key. I am no great personality. But every time I did do something remotely spectacular, I always had someone besides me, next in line, ready to help me out if I needed assistance. And as much of a lunatic I am, I have been a lucky person when it comes to such occasions. I am referring to these people as first followers with respect to the talk I am sharing below, but in my case a first follower has always been a friend who I knew I could trust.

As the video above describes, the first followers are an under appreciated form of leadership, and quoting Derek Sivers: “The first follower transforms a lone nut into a leader”. The first follower helps an alone leader retain their self confidence and gives them the courage to keep moving forward. It takes guts to stand out and the first follower holds a key in leadership since the leader resonates with the idea that there is someone who has the same beliefs as I do, and that we can together do this. The first follower can be in the form of a friend, a mentor or at times can be a stranger too. I have had numerous people supporting me throughout my life and I although I am not even close to being a leader or being a success, I wanted to take the time to thank people who stood there for me in tough times and were there when I needed someone.

And since Wisdom Geek is a public platform, I will not bore every reader with a list of friends and family who helped me. But I will express my gratitude with a personal message to everyone who at some point, helped me. So, if you came here via a direct message and are still reading this, I want to thank you for being with this crazy person and this is my way of expressing gratitude for your efforts. And I encourage everyone else to go and express a thank you to their first followers as well.